On Tuesday night, June 14th we held a star party at the boat ramp area at Salisbury Reservation for Newburyport Charter’s 7th grade class. Earlier that day they had kayaked down the Merrimack and were camping over night at the park. About 30 students plus some teachers and chaperones were treated to views of the […]

NSAAC has a Meade DS-10 10″ f4.5 Dob available to loan to club members. Originally an equatorial mount instrument intended for visual and astrophotography use, it is was converted long ago to a Dob. It came in to the club’s possession when club founding member (and local comedian) Bob Seibel passed away. It was worked […]

Monday, May 9, 2016 started as most mornings have lately with mostly cloudy skies. Of course the weather folks all seemed to say what a glorious day it would be, with a few clouds, and lots of sunshine. Undeterred, I went out on multiple occasions with my Lunt 8X32 SUNoculars to take a look at […]

NEAF Report, April 9-10, 2016 Photo: Kevin Hocker Several amateur astronomers from our area made the four-hour trek to Suffern, New York, site of the annual Northeastern Astronomy Forum. Among them were Kevin Hocker, Dennis Gudzevich, Ron Sampson, Barry Yamtov, Mario Motta, and Jim Koerth. Kevin was drawn to […]

We had 11 (eleven) scopes available for observing tonight by the 100+ people in attendance. Thanks go to Michael Deneen, Tom Vozzella, John Gall, Bryan Stone, Charlie Hall (2 scopes!), Dave Aucoin, John Hobbs, Fred Sammartino, and John Brucker for helping. Observing started with Jupiter and the moon around 8:30 and moved on to other […]

This event was held at the Parker Wildlife Visitor Center on Plum Island in Newburyport. About 70 fourth grade students and parents attended. Clouds held off until 8PM, and even then the dark skies to the east provided reasonable views for a while longer. The Orion Nebula and Jupiter were the highlight of the evening; […]

Clear skies, a warm night, and a subdued mosquito population made for an excellent star party. A rough head count put the number of attendees around the 100 mark. NSAAC members Bryan Stone, Kevin Hocker, David Aucoin, Jon Brucker, and Brewster LaMacchia were joined by (hopefully soon to be club members) Paul Ouellette, Tom Manion, […]

After having been rained/clouded out for 5 different dates, we finally got our chance. The evening started with a presentation indoors by Brewster LaMacchia called “Planets, Moons, and Craters – a guide to looking for life in the Solar System“. Despite the clouds during setup, the sky cleared by 8:30 so the crowd of 50 […]

by Donald E. Pensack Collimation is the alignment of the optical parts of a telescope. Though lining up the secondary under the focuser is essential for uniform illumination of the field of view, there are only two critical alignments in Newtonian collimation: the Focuser Axis (aligned by adjusting the secondary mirror), and the Primary Axis […]

By Kandy Rathinasamy I got started with astronomy about a year ago, so I’m a relative newbie. Here are some tips that I hope will help you get started. You don’t need a telescope You don’t need a telescope to get started. There’s a lot to see with the naked eye. Learn about the constellations […]

NSAAC members meet at 7:30 on the first Friday of the month for astronomy related presentations and discussions at the Boxford Community Center, the yellow building on the corner of Elm St. & Middleton Rd., Boxford MA, next to the Boxford Community Store. Park & enter in the back. All are welcome. Come see us!

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Latest blog posts

Sky Object of the Month – December 2016 (Courtesy LVAS Observer’s Challenge*) M74 – Spiral Galaxy in Pisces (Mag. 9.4; Size 10’) For backyard astronomers who tackle the annual Messier Marathon, M74 is a serious stumbling block. Even in December, when Pisces rides high in the south when evening darkness has set in, this face-on […]

Sky Object of the Month – November 2016 (Courtesy LVAS Observer’s Challenge*) NGC 206 – Star Cloud in Andromeda Galaxy NGC 206 is an enormous star cloud located in the southwest part of the Andromeda Galaxy. In 1786, it was observed as a separate entity by William Herschel, who catalogued it as H V.36 (the […]